Re: [PATCH] hashed device lookup (Does NOT meet Linus' sumission policy!)

Ben Greear
2001-01-07T05:12:25Z

Chris Wedgwood wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jan 06, 2001 at 02:33:27PM -0700, Ben Greear wrote:
>
> I'm hoping that I can get a few comments on this code. It was
> added to (significantly) speed up things like 'ifconfig -a' when
> running with 4000 or so VLAN devices. It should also help other
> instances with lots of (virtual) devices, like FrameRelay, ATM,
> and possibly virtual IP interfaces. It probably won't help
> 'normal' users much, and in it's final form, should probably be a
> selectable option in the config process.
>
> Virtual IP interfaces in the form of ifname:<number> (e.g. eth:1) IMO
> should be deprecated and removed completely in 2.5.x. It's an ugly
> external wart that should be removed.

I don't know enough to have any serious opinion about virtual IP
interfaces, but I am very certain that VLANs should appear as
an interface to external code/user-land, just as eth0 does.

This hashing helps with VLANs, and since I aim to get VLANs into
the kernel proper sooner or later, having this piece in there
makes my patch a little smaller :)

However, if folks look at the patch and hate it, then it can
be left out, or changed appropriately.

Ben

--
Ben Greear (greearb@candelatech.com) http://www.candelatech.com
Author of ScryMUD: scry.wanfear.com 4444 (Released under GPL)
http://scry.wanfear.com http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear